


Hang my Hat!

by millygal



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 12:56:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10697469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/millygal/pseuds/millygal
Summary: John ruminates on what it is to feel at home!





	Hang my Hat!

**Author's Note:**

> Written for melagan and story_works picture prompt.

The sting of boiling water seers Sheppard's back, literally peels a couple of layers of skin from his shoulders, or so it feels. As the prickle of soap on sensitive flesh makes his nerves jump and twitch, he starts thinking on what it is to call a place **home**.

The return flight from Earth was torturous in it's length, he spent eighteen days bouncing off metal and glass, wishing he could be sitting at a table as Teyla reprimands McKay for forgetting his manners yet again.

He realises it doesn't matter what Galaxy you're in, or where you're hanging your hat, home is where you feel most comfortable, where the souls surrounding you make you whole.

It's the oddest sensation, going _home_ only to find that home no longer fits the way it should.

Earth may just be like that old pair of shoes he refused to throw out as a kid.

As a child his Mom always used to make him switch out his comfy, ratty, falling to pieces trainers for shiny new ones at the beginning of term. He'd kick and scream and threaten but eventually wear the damned things, and they'd become loved and lived in. Still he kept that old pair under the bed, just waiting for the day she wasn't looking and he could sneak them back on his feet. And on that day they felt foreign, didn't snug to the toes the way they used to, or support him when he ran for the school bus. It became painfully apparent that his Mom had been right and he'd outgrown them.

He's not sure whether he should be ashamed about it, but maybe he's _out grown_ Earth.


End file.
